Dan in the Eastern Expanse

• Well, the biggest difference between the US and China...there are many, but among the two major spheres of nature and people, people are the most different, of course! The natural landscape is neat; hot humid weather (I was literally sweating INTO my soup at a restaurant the other day), and palm trees! The sun shines a little more intense here in MN, but not deathly by any means (except at the water park with minimal sunscreen :) ). The people can be super duper nice and accommodating, especially since I'm a foreigner. I've rarely, if ever, felt hated against; foreign people are stared/looked at/ photographed, like I'm a fascinating kind of animal! But the ignorant "country folk" here in Panyu can have bad manners. Cantonese people WILL cut you off in line; coming from a Western perspective, this does NOT make me happy! At KFC, in the store, waiting in line anywhere. Ok anyways, my favorite Chinese food? Rrobably fried noodles (Chao Mian, aka Chow Mein), And egg tarts (a Macau/Portuguese thing), and JiaoZi (dumplings) with peanut sauce. In my free time, I usually hang out with my new buddies (Chinese and foreign), traveling around the city; I've also been to Hong Kong and ShenZhen, and I plan on going to Macau next Sunday, Aug. 8th. What I miss most (besides friends and family) are: Duluth, Subway, real grilled hamburgers, American flags, GOOD cookies, motorcycles that are NOT driven on the sidewalk, clean air....I think of new things each day, but I'm by no means aching to go back; I think China's pretty sweet.

Friday, June 23 I went with Julien and Trever to the Western breakfast in this gated community called Clifford. It was in a "Vietnamese" restaurant called Jessica's, which served Vietnamese (spring rolls), French (baguette, croissant), and American (pancake/egg breakfast) food, with Latin music. It was very...international? And by that I mean confusing. I had an omelet (ordered off-the-menu) with 5 "toppings," was quite refreshing and filled me up for half the day; then went to the "foreign" store and bought gravy mix and shredded (Sargento) mozerella cheese for the Poutine. I also got a Kinder egg (the German/European chocolate eggs with a toy inside) and some random candy bar. I also bought a deck of cards, which do have Chinese writing on the box and Jokers, and have a motorcycle on the backs (as opposed to a cherub on a bicycle or something) but other than that, are just like your average playing cards. Then before work I tried looking for this store that sold games like Settlers of Catan (in Chinese!), and couldn't find it, but found a store that sold semi-Chinglish (unintentionally) signs (Gentlemen, No Fireworks, Push/Pull, etc.), Go, and a HUGE PRC flag! Why do I buy these things? Then after work, Julien, Kate, Alex, his wife Lulu, and myself all went to the arcades! They had a reallysweet-looking Drum Master (?) game, basketball hoops that give you tickets, Ski-ball, racing games, a Japanese cartoon drumming game, and this animal crane that grabs not stuffed animals, but stuffed turds with smiley faces!

I'm sick today, so I'm going to update the blog; yep, it's about time.

A few weeks ago (Sun, July 18)Julien, Trever and I all went to this amazing water park called Hanxi Changlong (Chimelong) Water Park; it's actually one of Guangzhou's biggest attractions, and only one metro stop away from ShiQiao! The park is one of two parks at Hanxi Changlong, the other is Chimelong Paradise, where all the roller coaster rides and lumberjack shows are. The park opens at 9:30am, and we arrived at 10. There were almost no lines in the morining! So we hit up as many as possible in those first few hours, especially one called the Behemoth Bowl, where you sit in a raft for 4 people and go around this toilet bowl. That was probably my favorite ride. The lines were the biggest in the afternoon, which was a good chance for the Chinese to get a good long look at us 3 odd-looking foreigners. In one line this one girl was poking Trever's blue-and-green eyes, and called them, "piaoliang," or pretty. Then when the line zig-zagged back again, she did so once more, etc. On another line, Julien rubbed his super-hairy chest and a bunch of Chinese people cheered.
The lockers cost a 20RMB (~$3 USD), with a 20RMB deposit, which isn't cheap by Chinese standards, but they're a necessity; but what surprised us was that the inner tubes cost at least 20RMB, as opposed to coming with the package when you enter the park. They were worth it; the park didn't have merely a lazy river, it had an Action River! The river had a few different themes (one for each section of the river), one of which was a "winter-land," with Christmas decorations and ice-cold water dripping on you, and another was a wave-pool like area of the river.
The water park also had 3 speed slides, which were among my favorite rides. We met a Russian guy, on vacation from Vladivostok, in line. From the line we could also see the brand new, high-end White Tiger (the mascot of Changlong) Restaurant, with a banner advertising such things as "Fresh Sesfoods." Sesfoods! Really, China, no spell check?
For dinner we had fried noodles and spicy squid-on-a-stick, it was all quite delicious! After sundown the wave pool had a concert (the stage sticks out into the wave pool), but the three of us took advantage of the lack of lines to fit in some more rides before the park closed. We met and rode on the "Tornado" (another huge raft ride) with some Columbian people. And by that time I had realized that the sun had completely burnt me to a crisp! I am still peeling just a bit to this day. Altogether, we were there for 12 hours. It was a great fun day!

In short: it's a blast! I've taught the D1 three times now, and the B6 about 5 or so times. Basically, with the D1 class I announce the new vocab. Words (pen, pencil, next to, Do you have my cell phone?...), ask the students to spell it out loud, and I write it down. Then I'll make up some sentences/dialogues and write them on the board, and we'll all say them out loud; then the real fun starts and we ask each other questions like, "Hi, my name is Apple, who is he? Where is he from?" The main point (and challenge for me) of the classes is to get the students to speak about 80% of the time. For example, last night I wrote a list of personal descriptions (tall/short, talkative/quiet, handsome/pretty, etc.) on the board and had my students and I each choose 3 things that describe them, and 2 things that don't, and practice asking other students about each other.